Leon Edwards was âbrokenâ by Kamaru Usman heading into the fifth round of their UFC 278 title fight, which took place last weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Thatâs according to former UFC lightweight Din Thomas, who was providing additional commentary for the UFC 278 broadcast in âThe Beehive State.â Thomas has nearly 40 professional fights to his credit and more than 20 years of coaching under his belt.
âIf it wasnât obvious enough, Leon is broken now,â Thomas said during the fight. âAnd the biggest tell that you can always know this is because he doesnât give his coach eye contact in the corner. When you donât give him eye contact, youâre ashamed, and heâs embarrassed right now of his own performance.â
Despite a strong first frame, Edwards gave back the next three rounds and was on his way to a unanimous decision loss, ending any chance of capturing the welterweight title for himself and his adoring fans back in England.
Even his own coach was starting to panic.
âHe lost the second round, he lost the third round, and thatâs when the panic started to set for me,â Dave Lovell told MMA Junkie. âI knew I had to do something. His body language â he wouldnât look me in the eye. He was slumping in his chair. He looked dejected. I was like, âThis is not you, son. What is wrong?â I donât know what it was, call it Godly intervention, but I had to shake this kid out of his slump. Weâre in a world title fight, and youâre fucking looking sorry for yourself. You didnât come this far, all this work put in over the last six, seven years, to come to this country, and youâre going to bow out like a lamb? Youâre content seeing this fight out without giving it your all? So I knew I had to do something, and it just rolled out that way.â
Lovell called for a head kick â the same one they drilled in practice â and Edwards delivered, flattening Usman and claiming the 170-pound title. But in the moments following the shocking outcome, Thomas was heavily criticized on Twitter for his âbrokenâ comments.
Hereâs a sample:
Din Thomas owes Leon Edwards a HUGE apology.
Heâs probably not as petty a person as I am, but I would have all kinds of shit to say about Din Thomas this morning if I were Leon Edwards.
Leon Edwards, I followed and we all believed. FUCK DIN THOMAS.
âItâs easy to go back and go, âLook, he was wrong,ââ Thomas told MMA Fighting. âWe also live in a culture where idiots try to be smarter than everybody else. So, obviously theyâre like, âOh, that didnât age well, blah blah blah,â but in the moment when he came back to his corner? ⌠He had a first round against Kamaru Usman that no one has had. No one has ever had a dominating round like that against Usman. Then what does Usman do? Usman smiles back to the corner and goes, âOK, weâve got a fight here,â then comes back and wins the next two rounds convincingly, and easily. The fact that Leon had that first round, then gets beat the next few rounds â and it progressively gets worse â heâs getting frustrated, heâs like, âOh man, I thought I was in this fight; now Iâm no longer in this fight.â Thatâs probably whatâs running through his mind.â
The comments from Lovell support that analysis.
âIâm saying this based on me being in that situation before, in terms of as a fighter, me being a coach for the last 25 years and dealing with fighters for the last 25 years, this is the type of mindset that they have,â Thomas continued. âThey start to break. Going into that last round, as soon as [the fourth] was over, the first thing Leon did was put his arms up and his head down. Now, when youâre proud, do you put your head down? No. When youâre ashamed, you put your head down, because you donât want to face whatâs in front of you.â
Thomas is currently âaccepting apologiesâ on his Twitter account.
Oh Din, surely thereâs a mirror somewhere in your houseâŚ
Damn You Read Fast McTTT
Anything can happen in a mma fight and Din should have refrained from calling him broken. There are much better words to describe a fighter who is down in a fight and has a low shot of winning.
His job is literally to give his thoughts on the fight, which he did. Whether his take is correct or not doesnât really matter - itâs his take and thatâs what heâs there to share with the viewers. Iâm glad heâs man enough and smart enough to not apologize to the mob.
When your job is to talk and fill dead air you will talk and inevitably say dumb shit sometimes.
Itâs weird there was a reaction to that specific comment because if he was right or wrong who cares. He just looks dumb for having said it and then Leon doing what he did. Thatâs it. Apology is ridiculous.
I still find it funny Din says the whole world thinks theyâre so smart while seemingly omitting himself from that point though 
Good for him! Never apologize! That was his analysis and he should stick to it. Heâs seen it as a coach and a fighter. He knows more than most how these things play out.
Commentators have a right to make dumb comments occasionally and mma fans also have a right to laugh at them when they do.
Din literally echoed what Edwardâs own coach said before the 5th round. Why isnât anyone going after his coach?
I donât know why anyone is going after anyone!
Laugh at Dinâs comic timing or donât and we all move on.